Tennis

We had a special visitor, Mr Cottrell, who came and taught us tennis skills.  

We learnt how to hold the tennis racket correctly.

We hold the end of the racket so we can reach further with our racket.

We hold the racket on top (we put the racket on the ground and pick it up to get our grip right). 

We also learnt to play a forehand shot.
Our feet are sideways
We point with our left hand to where we want to hot the ball
We swing the racket through like an aeroplane and catch in our other hand after we have hit the ball. 

Mr Cottrell showing us a forehand shot

Maia controlling the ball with her racket
So much concentration

Walking or running with the ball
on our racket

Coopa's follow through

Sienna keeping her eyes on the ball

Charlie pointing with his right hand

Angus being very determined

Mac has his eyes on the ball

Marshall moving towards the ball

Maia catching the racket in her other hand

Maddie hitting a great forehand

Marshall catching the racket

Thank you so much Mr Cottrell we had so much fun and can't wait for you to come again so we can learn some more. 

Weight and Capacity

We have been learning about weight and capacity.

1kg = 1000g

1litre = 1000ml

Estimating and then measuring how
many potatoes are in 1 kg

Zack and Blair trying to make playdough
weights

Aotea and Katie working out how far away from 1 kg their estimation was

Issy counting how many 1/3 of a cup
fit inside the jug

Janice and Zack measuring how many
mls they used to make colours 

Georgina made a a container to hold 1/4 of a cup.
Look how close her estimation skills were.

Ruben cutting a lemon
I wonder how many mls of lemon
juice he will put in his lemonade?

Charlie and Keiarliya working together to make
a 200g weight.

How many kernels fit in 1/4 of a cup?
Great strategy of making groups of ten by this group

Angus and Pinenga testing how many mls
their containers hold

Squeezing lemon juice ready to make the perfect
lemonade. How many mls of lemon juice and sugar syrup? 

Jack measuring his lemon juice

Blake and Jordan calculating together
how many mls of each colour they will
use to make purple.

Weighing to find out what they can send in a
parcel and how much it will cost.

Jessica carefully measuring 2 tablespoons
of cocoa powder

Working together to put the mixture
in a cup ready for cooking

Estimating and counting in 1/3 of a cup. 

Maia following the instructions to cook
the chocolate cake

Yum! Chocolate cake.

If you would like to make the chocolate cake at home here is the recipe

WALT measure a fraction of an amount

                                           Follow the recipe to make a 1 cup chocolate cake

3 Table spoons flour
1/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon
2 Tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1/2 large egg (scramble the egg in a bowl and then just use half)
30 mLs of vegetable oil
30mLs of water

1)   Mix all the ingredients together in a jar or cup

2)   Put in microwave for 2 minutes

3)   Let it cool down

4)   Eat and enjoy!

Buster the Rabbit

Room 1617 have a travel bug called Buster the Bunny. Buster the Bunny is going to go travelling around the New Zealand and hopefully the world. Whenever Buster the Bunny goes somewhere new  a message is sent to us and we can find out where he is on the maps in our classroom. 

We walked down to a special place to leave Buster for somebody else to pick up and take on a journey somewhere. 

When we walked to Busters' drop off we needed to cross roads safely. We have been learning how to cross the road and keep ourselves safe. We looked left, right and left again and listened carefully. We noticed cars along the road, cars turning, cars coming out of driveways and bicycles. 

Sienna placing Buster ready for his next adventure

If you would like to know how Buster travels around the world visit www.geocaching.com.

A big thank you to Gwen's Mum for walking with us and helping us cross the road. 

Learning to be Cartographers

We are learning to read and create maps.

Jessica and Naomi using the grid reference to find countries in an atlas

Jordan and James found the country Jordan

We have been exploring atlas's and maps and creating our own treasure maps. Miss Sampson, our lovely librarian who also helps us with our writing, has lent us her globe. We think it's pretty amazing how many countries there are in our world.

We are all very interested in learning about different places on the globe and how our planet works. Ruben wants to find out why there is so much water on our planet. Keiarliya wants to know how gravity works - how do we walk around the world if its round, without falling off? Do you know the answer to these questions?

Charlie, Ruben and Ella discussing maps before school

Check out this really cool song and video that shows all the different countries on our planet.